Even if You Hurt Me
by ValharaMoria
Summary: ItachixOC Oneshot.  "That's fine, Itachi. If it's you, I can be hurt or even killed. Itachi, I'll love you..." #4 of 100 Oneshot Challenge


It was our academy years that I first saw him, quietly surpassing even the best of our class, as if it was nothing to him, like he could be better than us without even trying. I despised that of him, he seemed so arrogant, so calmly uninterested in any of us that were below him. Just like the other Uchiha members.

Then we graduated from the academy, he was only seven, younger than the rest of us but I'd graduated the same time, though I was ten years old.

When teams were given, finally, our instructor called out 'Uchiha Itachi, by recommendation, and permission by the Hokage, you will be in a two man team.' Whispering occurred to the handful of us that hadn't been called, wondering who would be paired to the Uchiha. The instructor looked up briefly, our eyes meeting, 'Yagashi Amaya.'

From Genin to Chuunin took him three years, while I was left behind.  
>Only once did I question his ability for kindness.<br>That day his brother was there to meet him at the village gate, not yet old enough to join the academy himself, he was grinning as he sat patiently.

Itachi halted at the gates, sweeping up the little boy. Itachi's face was covered in a thin smile, more emotion than I'd ever seen on the preteen's face. His brother held to him tightly, then glanced over his shoulder, meeting my eyes, "Who's that, Ani?"  
>Itachi looked back quickly, "Yagashi Amaya."<br>The boy grinned, waving at me.  
>The look on Itachi's face when he held Sasuke was one of contentment, one of happiness, nothing like I'd ever seen.<br>I looked down at the ground, realizing I thought something I shouldn't have. I'd have liked him to look at me like that. Just once.

It seemed like we'd just started to get along as well as he gets along with people, when he took the Chuunin Exams at only 10 years old. Missions became less frequent as he would go, leaving me behind on purpose. He would never tell me why I couldn't come along, or why he stopped telling me we had one.

The year he left to become an ANBU, I found him sitting alone at the bridge on the railing, staring into the stream below.  
>He didn't look up but lifted his head a fraction, " Amaya?"<br>I couldn't think of anything I wanted to say, so I just walked up beside him, seating myself on the railing next to him.  
>He looked over, "Why are you out here? It's nearly dusk."<br>I shrugged, "Just wanted some air. With no one to come home to I get lonely sometimes and walk around out here to watch the stars."

We sat there in silence for nearly an hour before he sighed, leaning back an inch, "I should go. Go home and sleep, it's getting cold out here."  
>I paused a moment, "One question first and I'll leave you alone."<br>He stopped, "Fine. Just one."  
>I jumped down from the rail, landing behind him.<br>"Why did you never let me come on missions with you unless Hokage-sama forced you to? Am I such a bad partner that all I ever do is get in the way?"

There was a moment that all I could hear was the stream below us, gurgling quietly in contentedness, oblivious of the tense atmosphere.  
>Finally he turned to the side, one eye looking back at me, "Perhaps I didn't want you to get hurt. Perhaps I didn't want to think I couldn't protect you so I didn't want to take the chance of finding out if I didn't have to."<br>I blushed, watching as he turned back, continuing to walk away. I closed my eyes a moment, before turning around to go home as well, a bright blush still on my cheeks.

It was months before I got to see him again, and everyone insisted it was because of his missions, and I was being a bother about it. When I finally did see him, he was with Sasuke, smiling as the walked down the stone streets.  
>I didn't say a word, happy to stay unnoticed, but Sasuke spotted me first, "Amaya-chan! Itachi-san, there's your friend!"<p>

I couldn't avoid them as they walked over to me.  
>We talked for a while, nothing of importance being said, before Itachi mentioned dinner and Sasuke was happily carried away.<br>I stood there for a few moments, watching them walk away. A shiver ran up my spine, a jolt of emotion that pierced through me when Itachi gave me his farewell glance, an emotion that I'd had plenty experience on realizing what it was; Fear.

For three years, we spoke only now and then, and he continually became better an ANBU captain, a great ninja and yet he seemed to never grow any closer to me. Still just as closed off.

My eighteenth birthday, I sat alone in a tree in the training fields staring up at the night sky, counting stars.  
>"You've always liked to stare at the sky, haven't you, Amaya-chan."<br>I paused, "I didn't hear you come up Itachi-kun."

We sat in silence a few more moments before I leaned back, "Itachi-kun?"  
>"Yes?"<br>I sighed, "That day, when you were accepted as an ANBU. You said you didn't want me to do missions so I wouldn't get hurt if you couldn't protect me. Why did you say that?"  
>He fell down to the branch I sat on, making me jump with a start, "That was years ago, Amaya."<br>"Is it no longer relevant?"  
>He sighed, "Perhaps I liked you more than I should have as my partner."<br>I froze a moment, hearing what I didn't dare to hope to hear from him. As I sat there, he carefully leaned forward, hesitating a moment, as if not sure he should continue. I made the decision for him, meeting him in a soft kiss.

Since that night, I saw him every day he was in the village, even if for only a quick meal.  
>He seemed less distant, more willing to open up to me, even bringing his little brother along now and then to see me.<p>

Then he left one day, for nearly a week, and when I heard his team had come back, I waited for him, but he never came to see me.  
>I searched the village that night, hoping to find him wandering around the village like he'd done many nights before when something was weighing on his mind.<br>Then he was there, sitting on the same rail that had started his confession so long ago.

I couldn't help but quicken my pace, "Itachi-kun?"  
>He didn't move, still staring into the depths of the stream, past the curling water.<br>I moved slowly to sit beside him, "…Itachi?"

He didn't answer. Finally I placed a hand on his arm, seeming to snap him out of his daze.  
>He looked at me quickly, then back to the waters, "You should leave, Amaya."<br>I tilted my head in confusion, "It's not that late, Ita-kun. I always stay up this late. Besides, where have you been?"  
>He shook his head, "Not to bed. Leave Konoha, visit somewhere like Suna. Don't stay around me."<p>

His words chilled me to the bone  
>"What's wrong, Itachi? Did I do something?"<br>He shook his head, seemingly aggravated now, "Just go. I don't want you to speak with me ever again, Amaya-san."  
>His tone made me pause, "Tell me why you're mad at me, Ita-kun."<p>

He turned towards me a moment and I thought my mind was playing tricks on me when his eyes flashed red for just a moment. It must have been the lighting.  
>Itachi sighed, "You'll be hurt if you don't go now, Amaya-chan. I can't fall in love with you more than I have. We have to move on."<p>

It cut me to hear him talk as if it was just a decision we had to change, that it was a mistake that could be easily corrected if we just left each other alone.  
>My next words I would never think would hold as much meaning as they would turn out to.<br>I smiled lightly, "That's fine, Itachi. If it's you, I can be hurt or even killed. Itachi, I'll love you, even if you kill me."  
>His eyes closed for a moment before he stood up, pulling me off the railing with him into a tight embrace, "You may regret those words, Amaya. Please, go now, or I won't give you the chance again. I couldn't."<p>

I only held him close, then looked up at him, pulling him down to me in a soft kiss. His temper slowly came through, pulling me closer to him, turning the kiss into something stronger, and more passionate than usual.  
>His eyes told me where we were going as he dragged me off the bridge and back towards the village.<p>

That night, was the first time I would show him just how much I loved him and he would return my love, even if it would be the last time as well.

We stayed together for nearly four months after that night, and he treated me more openly, though his eyes became more and more sad, more distant when he looked at me, but he would finally smile at me with such happiness that I couldn't bear to make him confront it by asking him what was bothering him.

The night I found out what was wrong, I was pulled from my bed, forced into a hard chest that held me too tightly. I shivered as a chill ran up my spine, "Itachi?"  
>His reply was only to hold me tighter to his body, "I'm so sorry."<br>His words reinforced my rising terror that something was wrong.  
>He leaned down, pulling my lips to his, as if to comfort me, then his whisper made me pause, "You would understand if I told you why, but I need to use you to become more than I already am."<p>

I looked up at him, a hand against his face. Something was odd about his eyes, making them a different color, with markings that seemed to turn slowly.  
>The light of the moon was dim in the room, filtered by my curtains, "I told you, you don't have to worry about me, Itachi. What's wrong?"<br>Something was wrong with his face, tiny patches of black smearing the pale white.  
>I pulled my hand away, looking at it.<br>Blood.

"…Itachi?...What did you do…?"  
>He lifted the long silver weapon in his hand, covered in the same seemingly black liquid. "They're all dead. My clan, and now you."<br>I froze, staring in horror as the man I loved drove the sharp blade into my chest, through my ribs. He leaned down, a single tear falling down his cheek, "Forgive me."

I never realized that I really would give him my life when I refused to leave him. But as the center of his eyes changed once more, I realized if it wasn't me, it would have been someone else that he had forced himself to move on to. To kill me meant ultimate power. The bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan, something I didn't realize before.  
>The Mangekyou Sharingan.<p>

His lips closed over mine, "Goodbye."

**(((A/N: Please note that to gain the Mangekyou Sharingan, I do know who was really killed by Itachi, though I won't mention it due to spoilers for those who DON'T know.  
>However, to clarify, if this had happened, that person wouldn't have been killed since Itachi would have had to kill my OC person because of how the whole thing works. HOWEVER, yeah I did the thing out of order, because Itachi got Mangekyou Sharingan BEFORE murdering his family, but...I've had this complaint on previous websites I posted this on, so I'm just clarifying...Thanks for reading, sorry if that all bothered you...had trouble making it feel right the other way...)))<strong>


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